Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Tuesday TV/Media Notes

Some items of interest that came our way this week:

Monday night was the conclusion of The Bachelor on ABC. Emily Maynard, the former fiance of the late Ricky Hendrick and the mother of his daughter was the contestant chosen to marry Brad Womack. Various websites continue to report that the two are not going to get married in real life. Maynard is a TV veteran, having hosted the syndicated 3 Wide Life show several years ago. It should be interesting to see if Maynard winds-up on TV again and if her new role is associated with racing.

Rusty Wallace will move up from the infield and join Marty Reid and Andy Petree for the Nationwide Series race this Saturday afternoon on ESPN. Dale Jarrett has the weekend off.

Nicole Briscoe hosts NASCAR Now this week on ESPN2. Mike Massaro will travel to Bristol, TN as a reporter for the weekend edition of the show.

The most recent double-super top-secret NASCAR Fan Council survey asked if more of the actual pre-race activity, including concerts by musical groups, should be on TV. Fans have been asking to see the Bristol, TN pre-race either on TV or online for years. Wonder what the NFC is thinking about?

The History Channel has announced that it will be sponsoring the Nationwide Series race in May at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Top Gear 300 incorporates the name of a TV series with versions produced in both the US and UK. This sponsorship is from the US budget, so expect to see Rutledge Wood, Tanner Foust and Adam Ferrara front and center.

Apparently things are not working very well for the 2011 version of Inside NASCAR on Showtime. It looks like Randy Pemberton has been pushed aside for the new presence of Kyle Petty, but that has not made a dent. The show was downsized from one hour to thirty minutes and is struggling in this format. Showtime is leaning on uncensored scanner highlights that essentially keep the profanity on the team radio as an attraction for viewers. There is little in the way of conversation and analysis due to the time restrictions. Should be interesting to see if the series hangs in there after this season.

SPEED is front and center on Friday from the Bristol Motor Speedway as the network handles all the on-track activity for both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. The network comes on the air at 11:30AM ET and ends with Trackside at 7:30PM. Even on Saturday, SPEED will handle the Nationwide Series qualifying in the morning before ESPN takes over for the 2PM race.

The television voice of the AFLAC duck, Gilbert Gottfried, has been fired. Gottfried is a comedian by trade and he posted several poor attempts at humor using the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami as a topic on Twitter. AFLAC does 75% of its total business in Japan. One in four homes in Japan has residents insured by AFLAC. Gottfried was fired immediately after his social media blunder.

Jeff Gordon continues to be a popular talk show guest. He will appear on the Ellen DeGeneres show on Friday, March 25. Check TV listings for the time of the show in your area.

Country star Billy Ray Cyrus will sing the national anthem on Sunday for the Sprint Cup Series race. Family musical group "Carter's Chord" will handle the anthem duties on Saturday for the Nationwide Series race. That country group is currently signed to Toby Keith's record label.

This post will be updated on Tuesday as more news items appear as the sport heads to Bristol. We invite your comments on the topics above. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

17 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Profanity is not the only thing Showtime has going for it. And now that I've watched Showtime, I'm more skeptical of the mainstream media's take on NASCAR.

For example - the clip has been played endlessly of Tony Stewart saying "Someone had better tell me how we lost this race." Well, guess what folks - he never actually said that. That sentence we have heard played on ESPN, FOX, etc. was heavily edited.

Now to some, they don't want to hear the full sentence with four F-bombs in it. I understand that. But at least the networks should bleep the profanity and give us a real sense of what he is saying -- instead of doing four edits on a single sentence and passing it off as a real quote when it is nothing but that.

The worst part about Inside NASCAR has not been the 30-minute time limit, but how utterly goofy Michael Waltrip has been. When this show first started he was on his best behavior. The last 5-6 shows it's like he's hopped up on uppers. I mean, he acts crazy and it is just awful.

A couple of points here I would not bring up on the little racing TV blog except that you did, JD.

"The Bachelor" drives me insane and not in a good way. I am glad this cycle is over. It will be back, but for now next Monday "Dancing with the Stars" replaces it and I actually find it amusing.

As to Gilbert Gottfried -- Goodness know why anyone would get paid for doing the "Aflac" squak. The very idea of it reminds me of how I learned what "voice talent" was and became "voice talent" all at the same time. Many years ago a friend was a disc jockey. His car beroke down. I went to pick him up at the staion. He was doing some local spots. He said, "Look, read this into the micrphone. I need another voice."

I heard on the news about Gottfried -- personally I think he deserved to be fired -- OK, I get that he's a comedian, but geez, a little sense needs to apply - people are dead, dying and others have lost everything - nothing to joke about at all.

The fan council deal always seems to ask questions about nothing -- they avoid asking anything that has substance. After all, everythign is great - Brian France just told us so.

i won't know until Sunday whether or not I'm watching the Fox broadcast or not -- a lot depends on the weather and my mood.

Emily originally wanted to be the "Bachlorette", but to be the Bachlorette she had to be on the Bachelor...Not surprising that things are already going bad with Brad because that's what's in the SCRIPT. She WILL be the next "Bachlorette".

If anybody thinks any of this reality crap is real, I got swamp land in Florida to sell...

I'm not defending Gottfied here but how many folks remember how quickly the jokes started after the Challenger disaster? It wasn't so much in poor taste as it was a way for folks to move on and recover from the shock and put it behind us.

Luckily I don't get Showtime so that's one less show I have don't to worry about seeing Motormouth Mikey on.

Considering who's doing the race commentary this weekend, it looks like a good opporunity to once again use my DVR to see the few laps of racing that are presented in between commercial breaks and avoid the endless drivel from the announce teams.

Cyrus the Virus doing the National Anthem? God help us all. It'll probably be as bad as his Fakie Breaky Heart.

I don't watch all that reality TV stuff, and I use the term reality with tongue firmly planted in cheek. I do wonder however what Rick Hendrick thinks about it all but I doubt he will ever say anything in public about it any time soon if at all. I get the Fan Council surveys but they skipped me on this one but count me as someone who wants to see the Bristol driver intros. According to Twitter JJ fans are picking Vicker's music and BV fans are picking Jimmie's and they are not being kind. Last I heard "It's raining men" is near the top of both lists. Now I'd pay money to see that.

It's a shame about the Showtime show but I still believe it's on the wrong network, I like many do not have Showtime and am not about to buy it for what is now 30 minutes a week.

I now avoid twitter when I MISTAKENLY find myself on during any wretched 'reality show'. I don't care who is on this junk.

Making jokes so quickly after the Challenger disaster was tasteless & thankfully I don't remember those being said around me. That said, HORRIBLE as that was, there is a risk involved in going into space.

There should not be such risk in living your daily life w UNEXPECTED and now seemingly endless string of disasters. Earthquake? Tsunami? Nuclear meltdown? Frankly if anybody I knew made such a joke, I would not be hanging around with them. If an acquaintance of SM person made such a joke I would UNFOLLOW them or stop reading their work.

For the record I NEVER found Gilbert G funny. His humor was disgraceful.

Perhaps he needs to read the article "Why is there no looting in Japan?" He would see what true character in the face of adversity is like instead of hiding behind the moniker of "I'm a comedian therefore I can joke about anything."

Glad AFLAC fired him. Honestly, I had no idea he was the 'voice' of the duck. Then again I had no idea 2.5 was the top sitcom on CBS (Piece of rubbish show w crude humor & 12 year old mindset at best)

SHOWTIME not worth paying for & certainly not for one show but sorry to hear the new changes are not working. I like Mikey but the boy has started to reach a constant manic phase that even I detest. Stepping over your colleagues is never a good thing.

I've nothing against the Billy Ray Cyrus music but with his family trainwreck happening, why not just hire Charlie Sheen to sing the anthem? daughter is an addict & Billy blames the tv show that made her famous (AND her parents wealthy) Shoulda spoke up about thsi years ago, Dad. Dont' go shrugging your shoulders now.You had the ability to just say NO to the Disney Dollar.

Remember when the Disney name was a good thing? I think that was back in the 1960s..maybe early 70s.

But for all the talk of bad timing, this is it. Granted Billy could do a good job of the tune but I might have scheduled him later in the year...but then again, doesn't NASCAR like hiring folks who offend??

That pizza guy? 90% of last seasons "singers" that butchered/yodeled the anthems...

A lot of people don't get showtime either because it is not available in their area or they can't afford it. Add in Mikey Waltrip and his me, me, me plus Toyota agenda and a lot of us just choose not to watch. We get enough of him, his brother and Toyota on weekends.

Billy Ray Cyrus blames everyone but himself for his problems and he could never sing anyway. I will tune in late.

Gilbert G is like a lot of what they call liberals and not funny in the least.

Reality shows are poor substitutes for real life. And they truly are not reality but scripted shows just like all sitcoms.

I am a new invitee to join the Nascar Fan Council this year - and the last (and only one received so far)one I received had to do with last weekend's Truck race - there was noting about Bristol pre-race - obviously I don't rate belonging to the double-super top-secret NASCAR Fan Council.

really....some of you are WAY tooo picky about the anthem, criticizing what you've never heard. I personally found Billy Ray a whiner about his 'Montana' comments, but I just listened to Youtube. He did the anthem just fine. Can't hit all the range, but who can? Sang it true to the tune and didn't 'embellish'. Certainly way better than Foghat or Christina. Just saying. You could do a lot worse.

You know where many people meet spouses? Work. Bars. Races. I don't know that the Bachelor is that different except for the cameras. I would hope Emily treads carefully, and I think she will because of her daughter. Don't know why she did it, but it's her life, not ours. Don't watch the show, but frankly, I wish everyone to have a happy relationship. I think it's easy for us to be judgmental. We've never been in her shoes.

Never saw The Bachelor and never will. Exploitation of woman even by their own doing is not a tv show I would watch. And Anom my grandma used to say "You go to church you find folks who go to church, you go to a bar you find folks who go to bars. Where do you want to meet your future spouse?" I don't think its on a reality show.

Showtime is now 1/2 hour instead of 1 hour. Not unexpected. Why pay talking heads when the audience isn't there. Mikey acting silly? Another reason why audience isn't there. Speed let him ruin the Monday night show and showtime must be doing the same.

Good to see a new sponsor in the History Channel. Don't care for the sillyness of Rutledge on the pre race Nascar shows so don't watch him on his new show. But the History Channel is terrific. In order to understand nations of people you have to understand where they've come from and THC does a terrific job.

Gilbert gone?? Well if you hire a not so politically correct comedian guess what you get? But Aflack did the right thing.

So Billy Ray is singing the anthem. You go to youtube and you can see he's almost made a career of late singing the anthem. Listening to some he's sang recently cetainly not the worst we've had and not the best either.

I love Bristol and will be watching with much enjoyment this weekend. Its not the Bristol of old but fun anyhow.